West Midlands Police force is actively inviting non-Muslim officers and staff to go without food and water during Ramadan as a deliberate “act of solidarity” with Muslim colleagues.
The force presents this as a way for officers to grasp the “significance of Ramadan” for Muslim residents in one of Britain’s most diverse regions. Critics see it as yet another example of public institutions bending their culture around one faith while the foundational principle of policing without fear or favour collapses under diversity dogma.
The invitation comes from the West Midlands Association of Muslim Police. Colleagues of all backgrounds are encouraged to fast for a day during the month-long festival, with the money they would normally spend on lunch donated to charity.
'I look forward to Christmas when all the Muslim officers have a tree in their house and join in.'@CressidaWetton reacts as West Midlands Police officers are invited to fast during Ramadan as an act of solidarity and to raise money for charity. pic.twitter.com/rmGxRxTKk8
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 2, 2026
A force spokesman confirmed the practice has run for a number of years: “The West Midlands Association of Muslim Police has, for a number of years, invited colleagues from all faiths and backgrounds to fast for a day to raise money for charity during Ramadan. It is entirely a matter for officers and staff if they wish to take part.”
“This is an initiative which is undertaken at a number of organisations around the country. The West Midlands has a large and diverse population, including many Muslim residents, and it is important for officers and staff to understand the significance of Ramadan to those communities,” the spokesman added.
Documents obtained by the Telegraph through freedom of information requests show the force is held up as a model of inclusivity. A New Forest council diversity training memo praises West Midlands Police for supporting fasting colleagues with flexi-working so they can spend time with families.
It notes: “What’s more, increasing numbers of non-Muslim staff have taken up fasting each year as an act of solidarity with their Muslim colleagues, adding to the family feel of WMP culture.” Councillors were urged to brainstorm their own versions of such inclusivity.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy did not share the enthusiasm. He called the encouragement of non-Muslim staff to observe Ramadan “wholly inappropriate.”
“The police should be a national force for all of us, observing the same standards regardless of creed,” Timothy said, adding “There should be no special measures in place for any faith.”
“We should not be changing police culture to comply with the practices of one religion,” he continued, adding “Expectations should be uniform, and non-Muslim police being encouraged to fast in Ramadan is wholly inappropriate. We need to abolish the Public Sector Equality Duty, which provides the legal framework for much of this, and ensure there is one rule for all of us – not special treatment for certain groups.”
Major Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, went further. He linked the initiative to the force’s recent controversies, including the exclusion of Israeli football supporters based on intelligence later shown to be false or exaggerated.
“West Midlands Police’s judgment is increasingly open to question,” Fox stated, adding “Supporting officers of every faith is entirely appropriate. Encouraging staff to participate in a religious observance is not. The police exist to enforce the law impartially, not to promote or facilitate religious practices.”
Concerns have also been raised about operational readiness. Front-line officers abstaining from food and water for extended periods during demanding shifts raises obvious questions about concentration, physical performance and public safety. Yet the force frames the voluntary fast as cultural enrichment rather than a potential operational risk.
This episode does not stand alone. It fits a pattern of ideological capture that a Policy Exchange analysis has shown is systematically undermining British policing. Forces across England and Wales have poured hundreds of millions into DEI measures and the Police Race Action Plan since 2020.
The think-tank’s head of crime and justice, David Spencer, warned that police chiefs have “sought to entrench the radical ideology of ‘anti-racism’ into British policing.” In doing so, he argued, “some police chiefs have set policing against its own foundational principle – to act ‘without fear or favour’.”
Spencer concluded: “It is a modern-day tragedy that many of our Chief Constables simply cannot be trusted to resolve this alone. It’s time to restore the principle of ‘equality before the law’ in policing. Nothing less than the fundamental legitimacy of British policing is at stake.”
The human cost of this ideology has already been measured in real lives. In Southampton in December 2025, 18-year-old university student Henry Nowak was stabbed multiple times. His attacker, Vickrum Digwa, claimed he was the victim of a racist assault.
Bodycam footage shows officers treating the bleeding Nowak as the aggressor, handcuffing him while he pleaded that he could not breathe. He lost consciousness shortly after and died. An inquest has been ordered to examine whether the handcuffing and delays in medical treatment contributed to his death under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Serving and former Hampshire officers later told former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that mandatory DEI sessions had “drummed into us about our white privilege and unconscious bias.”
The external trainer was described as “deeply hateful of white people and our culture.” Officers reported feeling controlled and pressured to adopt specific views on race. Hampshire’s chief constable denied the existence of two-tier policing, but the bodycam evidence and the subsequent admissions tell a different story.
Similar patterns appear elsewhere. Footage from Birmingham earlier this year captured officers intervening in a street attack by shielding three black males who had been punching a white teenager, then arresting and manhandling the bloodied victim while the attackers walked free.
Officers were heard ordering the restrained teenager into a police car with language that left little doubt about the direction of their aggression. West Midlands Police, the same force asked to participate in fasting, asked the public to stop sharing the clips rather than account for the conduct.
The same ideological framework has been institutionalised through training that forces officers to accept the concept of “white privilege.” Thames Valley Police has mandated equity sessions focusing on white privilege, micro-aggressions and the shift from non-racist to anti-racist practice.
An independent review found the material could be seen as demonising white officers, creating barriers to learning and generating resentment among white male officers who felt disadvantaged.
Former government adviser and ex-police officer Rory Geoghegan observed that officers “deserve far better from their leaders than to be crudely categorised by skin colour and subjected to reductive, divisive ideologies.”
When non-Muslim officers are invited to participate in Islamic religious observance under the banner of solidarity, while the same institutions have spent years instructing white officers on their supposed privilege and have been caught prioritising racial narratives over the immediate medical needs of a dying white teenager, the pattern is clear.
The Public Sector Equality Duty and the DEI apparatus that flows from it have produced a policing culture more interested in managed optics and protected group sensitivities than in equal application of the law.
Nick Timothy’s call to abolish that duty is not abstract. It is a recognition that one rule for all has been replaced by a hierarchy of protected identities. West Midlands Police’s Ramadan invitation is simply the latest public expression of that hierarchy.
British policing was built on the principle that the uniform represents the same standards for every citizen. That principle is being hollowed out, one diversity initiative at a time. The public is noticing. Trust is eroding. And the consequences are no longer theoretical.
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